


Owl

by RiTheBiGuy_RileyTMR



Series: Alphabet [15]
Category: The Good Doctor (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:48:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24431608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiTheBiGuy_RileyTMR/pseuds/RiTheBiGuy_RileyTMR
Summary: A patient comes into the ER and Neil finds that his backstory hits him harder than any other patient he's had.
Relationships: Claire Browne/Neil Melendez
Series: Alphabet [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1718374
Comments: 15
Kudos: 41





	Owl

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for taking so long to post this and thank you to everyone who commented on the last fic. I decided to go with owl which was suggested by claudiapsmc.
> 
> Hope you all enjoy and don't forget to leave a suggestion for P.

"Young male, was found in an alleyway, has injuries to his head and abdomen," the paramedic said, wheeling in a teenage boy into the ER where he was met with Neil, Morgan and Shaun, "looks to have been attacked and pretty bad, also signs of dehydration and malnourishment."

"Alright, start him on an IV and get CT and MRI scans," Neil said, pulling out a torch and checking the patients eyes, "Pupils are responsive," he checked the boys abdomen, "possible internal bleeding," Morgan and Shaun nodded and hurriedly rushed him to get the necessary scans. Once the images were up on the screens Morgan spoke.

"That is a lot of damage," she gasped.

"Damn, whoever attacked this kid really went all in, luckily there doesn't appear to be any neurological damage" Neil stated, "lets take him to an OR and fast," they all ran to scrub in before beginning to operate.

"I think this kidney will have to come out," Shaun stated once he was open on the table, "there is also a lot of bleeding coming from his spleen."

"Alright, you focus on stopping the bleeding from his spleen, Morgan can you focus on assessing the extent of the damage with his intestines, judging by his scans there might be some repairs needed there, I'm going to remove his kidney, also part of his liver by the looks of it," Neil said, the surgeons all focused on their tasks, barely speaking as they concentrated. They managed to find all of the sources of bleeding and stopped them when Morgan looked up at Neil worried.

"There's a couple of large tears in his small intestines," she said, "the contents of his bowels have been leaking into his body," Neil came over and looked.

"Crap," he said.

"Literally," Morgan replied, Neil gave her a stern look before speaking again.

"We have no idea how long he had been in that alley for, he has a large risk of infection now," he started to repair the intestines and cleaned out the boys body as much as he could, "we're going to have to pump him full of antibiotics and hope that he doesn't get sepsis," they closed up and took him to the ICU.

A couple of hours later, Shaun was checking their patients vitals when the young man started to stir and woke up.

"Whe- where am I?" he asked.

"St Bonaventure hospital," Shaun replied, "I'm Dr Shaun Murphy, we had to perform surgery on you."

"Why? What happened?"

"You were found in an alleyway," Shaun stated before walking out of the room, "he's awake," he said to Neil and Morgan who were standing by the nurses station. They both followed Shaun into the room.

"Hi there, I'm Dr Melendez, this is Dr Reznick and I see you've already met Dr Murphy," Neil said, "Can you tall us what your name is?"

"Eric," he replied, "Eric Reed."

"Well Eric, we had to operate on you, you were found in a pretty bad state and had quite a lot of internal bleeding, we had to remove a kidney and part of your liver, there was also extensive damage to you spleen and small intestines," Neil informed his patient, "We've got you on antibiotics to try to stop any infections, do you remember what happened to you?" 

"I don't know, I was walking and then I felt something hit the back of my head," he said.

"Do you have any family we can contact? You look quite young how old are you?" Morgan asked.

"I'm 18," he replied and laughed at the doctors confused faces, "I know I'm small for my age, that's what happens when you've been living on the streets since the age of 14."

"You're homeless?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah, my parents kicked me out so I've been fending for myself ever since."

"Why did they kick you out?" Shaun questioned, Eric looked uncomftable.

"Why don't we let Mr Reed rest," Neil said and Eric looked at him, thanking him with his eyes, he rushed Morgan and Shaun out of the room when Eric spoke.

"Was there a backpack that came in with me?" he asked.

"Not that I saw but I'll go and check with the paramedics, there will be some police here soon to take a statement from you," Neil replied.

"No!" Eric replied quickly before clearing his throat, "I don't want to press charges," he looked down at his hands and Neil nodded.

"Okay, I'll let them know," he said, he could tell that the young man was hiding something but he couldn't tell what.

"Hey everything alright?" Claire asked as she walked in to Neil's office. He was sat at his desk looking at nothing in particular. 

"Yeah," he replied, shaking himself out of his thoughts, "just had a patient come in today who was attacked, he's 18 but looks like he's 14 because he's been homeless for four years," he ran his hands over his face, "How would you feel about going somewhere with me right now?" 

"Um, sure, we're having a pretty slow day today, where do you want to go?" Claire questioned.

"My patient, Eric, has been asking about a backpack but the paramedics didn't have it, I was going to go to where he was attacked to see if i could find it."

"Okay," Claire replied, "let's go then," Neil smiled at her and stood up, heading out of his office.

"I'm guessing this is the place," Claire said, looking down at the quickly drying blood on the floor. Neil nodded slowly before looking around, "any idea what colour it is?" Claire asked.

"Nope," Neil replied, Claire rolled her eyes at this, before helping him search, "here it is," Neil said, picking up a small bag from next to a dumpster

"Must have broken during the attack," Claire said looking at the ripped straps on the backpack.

"C'mon, lets get back to the hospital," Neil said, heading back to his car.

"I believe you lost something," Neil said standing in the doorway of Eric's room, holding up the bag.

"You found it!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's a bit ripped though," Neil replied, passing it to the younger man. He quickly searched through it.

"Oh, thank God," he breathed as he pulled a small stuffed owl from the backpack, "I've had this since I was born, my Grandma gave it to me, I would sleep with it every night," Neil smiled as the boy looked down at the stuffed animal, he felt Morgan standing next to him, he looked up at her, noticing the grim look on her face. She handed him the charts that were in her hand , he read through them before he shut his eyes.

"Shit," he said, Eric looked up when he spoke.

"Everything alright doc?" he asked, Neil indicated for Morgan to leave before shutting the door, "that doesn't seem good."

"When we operated on you, we noticed your small bowl had some tears in it, which we repaired, but not before some of the contents had leaked out," Neil said, "we were hoping the antibiotics would fight off any infections but they don't seem to be working, so we're going to trying some stronger ones but if they don't work you could go into sepsis, which means your organs will start shutting down, we will try everything we can but the damage to your organs during the attack were very severe."

"What does that mean?" Eric asked, tears forming in his eyes.

"If that happens, I'm not sure we will be able to save you," Neil replied. Eric looked down and a tear escaped his eye and fell down his cheek before he started laughing.

"I might die because of my own shit," he chuckled, "what a way to go," Neil smiled sadly at him before heading to the door, "I was kicked out of my house for being gay," Eric blurted out. Neil turned around and looked at the boy.

"You don't need to tell me this," Neil said.

"I know," Eric replied, "but you seem cool and I don't have any friends or family, and I might die," he shrugged, Neil walked further into the room and sat in the chair next to the bed.

"We are going to do everything we can to stop you from dying," Neil replied.

"But if I am dying, please don't sugarcoat it, just tell me," Eric said, Neil nodded in response. Eric sighed, "I came out to my parents at 13, they tried sending me to conversion therapy but that didn't work, so they just disowned me without any warning, one moment I was at home, the next I was being dragged outside and told to never come back," tears formed in his eyes and he paused for a second before continuing, "I snuck in one night to grab a few things and I haven't been back since," Neil remained silent as Eric spoke, "I was low on money so I started doing things that I weren't proud of, that's what happened last night, I took a guy into an alley but he attacked me, it's happened before but never this serious. You always get the homophobes who say they're going to pay you but then beat the shit out of you and leave you to die," Eric stopped talking now and just sat there with tears falling down his face. Neil didn't know what to say, he wasn't expecting the younger man to confide in him like this. He thought for a minute then opened his mouth to speak before realising Eric had fallen asleep. He pulled the blanket up over the boy before quietly leaving the room.

Claire found Neil standing on the balcony later that day, according to Shaun and Morgan he had been standing there for hours and hadn't spoken to anyone. She stepped out into the cool air and placed a hand on his arm, he turned his head to look at her before looking back out at nothing in particular.

"Are you alright?" she asked him. He breathed deeply before turning to face her. 

"This kid, he was kicked out for being gay, he had been on the streets for years, he'd been selling his body so he could eat and now he might die," Neil said, "what sort of person kicks their son out for something like that, he's just a kid," Claire wrapped her arms around Neil's waist and lent her head on his chest.

"Some parents are just shitty," she replied, remembering her own mother, "all we can do is make sure he doesn't die, and if he will die then we make sure that he has someone there for him." Neil nodded and kissed Claire's head. She pulled back and smiled at him, "now I've got a patient to check up on, I'll see you later okay?" Neil smiled at her and she gave him a quick kiss before leaving.

"He's crashing!" Neil hears Morgan shout from Eric's room, he runs into the room and see's Morgan holding paddles onto the young man's chest, "Clear!" she says and the boy's body jolts, she continues this a few more times before she gets his heartbeat back, "looks like his organ's are starting to fail," Morgan said to Neil, indicating the urine bag attached to the side of the bed, "his kidney is going."

"Damn it," Neil muttered, "we cant get him a transplant or anything, by the looks of it his heart wont survive the surgery."

"Am I dying?" Eric groaned from the bed that he was laying on, trying to sit up.

"You need to lay down," Morgan said to him.

"Am I dying?" he asked again. Neil and Morgan looked at each other before Neil spoke.

"Your organs are starting to shut down, the infection is spreading through your body and has made your heart weaker," he replied.

"So, I am dying," Eric said, leaning back on the bed. Neil nodded, Eric sighed, "it's weird, I've spent years hating my parents for kicking me out, but now that I'm dying all I can think about is hugging my dad," Neil felt bad for him, he was a good person and didn't deserve this.

"I'm sorry, I need to go," Neil said before rushing out of the room. He headed to his office and shut the door behind him, he walked over to his desk and stood there breathing for a minute before suddenly launching a pile of paperwork across the room. He hadn't noticed that Claire was in the resident's lounge next door so was surprised to feel a hand holding his. Claire just stood there with him, rubbing circles onto the back of his hand with her thumb until he had calmed down, "I need to go somewhere," he said to Claire.

"Do you want me to come along?" she asked.

"Please," Neil replied.

An hour later, they pulled up outside of a small detached house, they got out of the car and headed over to the front door but before they could knock a man walked out of the garage.

"Who are you?" he asked them.

"I'm Dr Melendez, this is Dr Browne, are you Mr Reed?" Neil replied.

"Yeah, I am, what do you want?" he questioned them.

"Your son, Eric, is in the hospital, his condition doesn't look good and he may not make it through the night," Neil said.

"Eric isn't my son anymore," the man replied, "hasn't been for years, not since he told me he was a fag, I guess God is punishing him for that now," Neil's anger from earlier resurfaced and he grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt.

"He is dying and all he want's is his father!" he shouted at the man.

"You better get your hands off of me before I call the police!" Mr Reed shouted back.

"Neil. let's go," Claire said, putting her hand on his arm. He let go of the other man before angrily walking back to the car.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Neil asked Eric as he walked into his room.

"About as well as can be expected from a dying man," he replied. Neil walked over to the side of the bed and sat down in the chair next to him, "How long do you think I have doc?" he asked.

"It's hard to say," Neil replied, "but by the looks of it, only hours."

"I always thought I'd die alone," he said, "guess no I know for sure."

"You're not dying alone, I have someone else covering my patients so I'm going to stay here with you," Neil said.

"Thank you, Dr Melendez," Eric replied.

"You can call me Neil," he said back.

"Okay Neil, now I hope you don't mind if I take a quick nap do you? this whole dying thing is quite tiring," Eric laughed, Neil chuckled

"Go ahead," he replied. 

"But first, I want you to have this," the young man grabbed his stuffed owl and handed it to the doctor, "can you keep it safe for me?"

"Of course," Neil whispered, Eric smiled before shutting his eyes. He slept for a couple of hours whilst Neil watched over him before waking up again, "Hey, good sleep?" Neil asked.

"Dad?" Eric responded, "Is that you?" Neil could see that his eyes were unfocused and that he was nearing the end of his life.

"Yeah, it's me," Neil replied, tears forming in his eyes.

"I'm glad you're here, I've missed you," Eric said.

"I've missed you too," Neil said.

"I'm dying dad."

"I know,"

"Can you hold me, I don't want to be alone. Neil swallowed and tried to control his voice so it wouldn't crack.

"Of course," he replied, he got up and sat on the bed next to the younger man, Eric tried to lift his head us as much as he could before letting it rest on Neil's stomach as his hand wrapped around the older man's waist. Neil put one arm around the other mans small frame and held him close, stroking his hair as the life started to drain from his body. he felt Eric's breathing stop and heard the hum of the monitor as his heart stopped, he reached up and turned it off to stop the noise and just held the man there.

Neil walked out of the room and let various people walk past him and into the room, he didn't know who they were and he didn't really care, he just kept walking, looking at the stuffed owl in his hand. He walked past Morgan, Shaun and Alex, he saw Morgan go to speak to him but Alex stopped her with a hand on her arm. He was glad, he didn't need anyone fussing over him, he just wanted to go home and put this past him. He saw Claire near the Elevator talking to Audrey but she stopped when she saw him and dismissed herself from the conversation, Audrey understood and headed in a different direction. He felt Claire's hand in his as he got onto the elevator and it all started to feel slightly better.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't forget to leave a comment for P!


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